If the impact of Helene has any upside to it, it's that in the face of the threat from Milton, people are not inclined to hang around and "ride it out". The pictures of the last week's devastation are way too fresh.
@Pat_Walrond
This repeats exactly the rhetoric just before Rita.
That was a different kind of disaster and people died on the highways in stop and go traffic.
rob is right, they waited until it was too late. And because they were in an area they were unfamiliar with they didnt know where the shelters were located.
That did not happen
@Bliss There's that excruciatingly fine balance between ordering an evacuation too early or too late, mainly I think because hurricanes can be so contrary in their paths.
That was 12 yrs ago.
Weather predictions have greatly improved thanks to satellites and technology.
We had satellites in 2005 <G>
they werent available to the public and some states didnt want to pay for access and info.
@Bliss @Xponent_Rob @Pat_Walrond
20 years ago almost ... technology has improved
@Xponent_Rob You guys had better make sure that Harris wins the Presidency --- if not NOAA and maybe its satellites as well, go bye-bye
@JulesofJoy @Bliss
@JulesofJoy @Bliss @Pat_Walrond
I think my greatest concerns are that the storm will jog north and hit people who are still on the road, and that Helene did not suck up enough heat from coastal waters and Milton will maintain its greatest strength after landfall.
Florida's geography may not be forgiving in an evacuation situation.
@Xponent_Rob @Bliss @Pat_Walrond
Frightening and horrifying. I hope that people took advantage of the lead time. Some busses were empty in community evacuation counties. 🤞
No, the storm turned and hit the Tex/Louisiana border.
There were 2 million people trying to evac Houston for no reason. People died in traffic accidents in places where it wasn't even raining.
People got scared because this was like a few weeks after Katrina. There were so many uninvolved people telling people to evac, it became difficult for the authorities to pass on good info to the people on the roads, many of whom had run out of gas on the highway.
@Pat_Walrond
IIRC, Rita was the biggest evacuation in American history.
@Pat_Walrond An estimated 2.5 – 3.7 million people fled prior to Rita's landfall,[46][47] making it the largest evacuation in United States' history.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Rita
During Rita, I did something that could be considered an alternative.
I parked in a parking garage in downtown Houston. If I ever am faced with such a storm again I will do it again and treat it like a big campout.
It's a lot safer than the roads my family were stuck on.
At the time of Rita, I lived across the road from the Johnson Space Center, just a few hundred feet from Clear Lake, which means I was in a bad spot for storm surge.
@Xponent_Rob @Pat_Walrond @ellesu
That is a great idea. Interstate cooperation and traffic technology has also greatly improved since then.
@Xponent_Rob My first thought was to wonder how safe that would be if there were flooding, but then I realised I was thinking very much in a Barbadian frame of reference -- we have only a couple of multi-level car parks. I assume you're talking about your gazillion-level car parks?@Bliss @ellesu
Usually 5 or 6 floors.
A good one for a storm would be at least 4 floors above ground level and wide enough that parking in the center of the garage keeps you 50 feet away from the perimeter.
@Xponent_Rob Well that certainly makes sense
@Bliss @ellesu
@Bliss @Xponent_Rob @Pat_Walrond @ellesu holy crap !! That was bad !!
@Xponent_Rob Wow! That's distressing
@Xponent_Rob They didn't get out and off the road in time?